This handout photograph taken on July 25, 2026 by the press service of the 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Ground Forces shows a collapsed building next to a church in Druzhkivka, Donetsk region, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Iryna Rybakova / The 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade / AFP)
At least six people were killed on Sunday in Ukrainian strikes targeting Russian-occupied territories and a village along Russia’s border, as civilian casualties continue to rise in the more than four-year-old war.
The latest attacks came as Russia also launched fresh strikes on Ukraine, with a drone attack on a residential building in the northeastern city of Kharkiv leaving one person dead and several others injured, according to Ukrainian authorities.
The renewed violence follows a deadly Saturday in which 20 people were reportedly killed on both sides of the front line, highlighting the continued escalation of hostilities despite stalled diplomatic efforts to end the conflict that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In the Russian-controlled city of Gorlivka in eastern Ukraine, occupation authorities said a Ukrainian drone strike killed four people.
Moscow-installed officials in the occupied Kherson region also reported that another person was killed in a separate Ukrainian attack.
Meanwhile, authorities in Russia’s Belgorod region said a Ukrainian drone strike killed one resident in the border village of Smorodino.
The incidents occurred a day after Russian officials claimed that a Ukrainian strike on an occupied town along the Sea of Azov left 12 people dead.
In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said emergency responders were working at the site of a Russian drone strike on a residential building in Kharkiv.
“Tragically, one person was killed and nine others were injured, including two children,” Zelensky said, adding that Russia also launched ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, where three people were reported injured.
Efforts led by the United States to broker a ceasefire remain at an impasse, while the Kremlin continues to control large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine and has repeatedly declared its intention to seize the remainder of eastern Ukraine through military force.
